Verified by 
Mania
An Atheist Neuroscientist Finds Faith in Bipolar Mania
Why does bipolar mania cause hyper-religiosity, even in a nonbeliever like me?
Posted Jan 23, 2021
I kicked off my shoes and sat them next to the door of the temple, glad that I remembered not to wear the socks with a hole in the toe.
Inside, I was alone in the large open room. Hidden speakers softly filled the air with the sound of monks chanting in Vietnamese. The walls and corners were awash in color, from brightly hued banners to vivid murals depicting sacred scenes.
I mimicked what I’d seen others do on my earlier visits – I walked to the front of the room and dropped a dollar into a slot for donations. I lit a stick of incense and stuck it upright in a box of sand. The woody smell of the smoke blended with the sweet scent of the dozen or so purple and white orchids on the altar.
I walked to the center of the room and turned back towards the front to face the enormous Buddha statue behind the altar. I knelt on the floor and looked up at the Buddha’s face, suddenly realizing that in this position he was looking right into my eyes. I whispered, “Please give me strength,” and quietly wept.
Epiphany or Delusion?
I am not Buddhist. But I am bipolar. Two years ago, I was diagnosed with Bipolar I disorder after more than 20 years of being treated for major depression and anxiety. In retrospect, there were signs over the years that I was actually bipolar, but it wasn't until I experienced a severe manic episode lasting several months that the true nature of my condition became clear.
It was during that manic episode that I started frequenting the Buddhist temple near my house. I also began to revisit the Catholic faith of my youth; before my personal and academic explorations into the nature of what makes us who we are had rendered me a nonbeliever.
At first, I approached my renewed interest in religion and spirituality much like an anthropologist would examine the belief systems of some foreign culture. What psychological and sociological factors drive people to believe what they do? How did historical forces shape the spread and evolution of major religions? Are our brains hardwired to predispose us to believe in... something?
But then my thought processes started to shift. My mania was increasingly filling me with unbridled energy. I felt stronger and faster. My senses were heightened, like everything had suddenly switched to high definition. My mind raced at lightning speed, making all sorts of creative and meaningful connections that I wanted to share with those around me—if they could just keep up when I tried to explain things to them.
Was this how religious prophets felt? Was I some kind of modern-day prophet? Was this how the Buddha or Jesus felt? Was I—?
Careful.
If I started talking like that, I was afraid I’d be labeled schizophrenic and maybe get put away somewhere. Better to write those thoughts down in one of the many notebooks I’d started keeping for reminders and to catalog my inspired ideas.
Better yet, in case anyone reads that notebook I’d better obscure those thoughts by using mirror writing like Leonardo da Vinci.
I didn’t even know I could do that.
Bipolar Disorder and Hyper-Religiosity
Hyper-religiosity during mania is experienced by many individuals with bipolar disorder, and can vary by country with regard to the prevalence of religious vs. secular attitudes.
In the U.S., it is estimated that 15%-22% of bipolar individuals with mania experience religious delusions, such as thinking that demons are watching them or that they are Christ reborn. However, short of delusions, hyper-religiosity can be hard to identify among those actively practicing a faith.
Many people turn to the comfort of their faith to help them through trying times, so an uptick in religious thought and activity can be viewed by family, friends, and even mental health providers as a normal response to one’s illness. It’s only when behavior falls outside of social norms that it becomes concerning.
Kanye West is arguably an example of this difficulty playing out against the backdrop of artistry and fame. Kanye’s public on-again off-again approach to medication for treating his bipolar disorder has been linked to erratic behavior.
While Kanye has referenced God and Jesus throughout his career, his adoption of the nickname “Yeezus,” statements about his single “I Am A God,” and leading of public and private worship services have been alternately interpreted as a “God complex,” an artistic device, or an evolution of his personal faith.
I never thought I’d have something in common with Kanye West. Yet there I was, on the verge of becoming some sort of dime-store Yeezus.
Seeking a Neurobiological Explanation for Bipolar Hyper-Religiosity
In the past few decades, several highly publicized research studies have claimed to find “God spots” in the brain—distinct areas, usually in the temporal or parietal lobes, thought to be responsible for spirituality.
Subsequent research has thrown cold water on such claims, instead supporting the idea that such a complex phenomenon as spirituality involves networks of multiple brain areas responsible for different aspects of spiritual experiences.
For example, it now appears that parts of the parietal lobe are associated with feelings of spiritual transcendence, parts of the temporal and frontal cortices are involved in the storage and retrieval of religious beliefs in memory, and still other parts of the frontal lobe and limbic structures are responsible for rational and emotional aspects of religious beliefs.
In later posts*, I will go into more detail about what is known regarding how specific brain regions contribute to religious cognition, the difference between religion and spirituality when it comes to this type of research, and how religiosity in Parkinson’s Disease patients provides insight into the neurobiological basis of hyper-religiosity during bipolar mania.
Spoiler alert: it involves dopamine.
*In lieu of subsequent posts, a feature length version of this article will appear in the print version of Psychology Today later this spring.
References
Pesut, B., Clark, N., Maxwell, V. & Michalak, E.E. (2011). Religion and Spirituality in the Context of Bipolar Disorder: A Literature Review. Mental Health, Religion & Culture, 14(8):785-796, DOI: 10.1080/13674676.2010.523890.
Grafman, J., Cristofori, I., Zhong, W., & Bulbulia, J. (2020). The Neural Basis of Religious Cognition. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 29(2):126-133, DOI: 10.1177/0963721419898183.
Koenig H.G. (2007). Religion, Spirituality, and Psychotic Disorders. Revista de Psiquiatria Clínica, 34(1):40-48, DOI: 10.1590/S0101-60832007000700013.
Ouwehand, E., Braam, A.W., Renes, J.W. et al. (2020). Holy Apparition or Hyper-Religiosity: Prevalence of Explanatory Models for Religious and Spiritual Experiences in Patients with Bipolar Disorder and Their Associations with Religiousness. Pastoral Psychology, 69:29–45, DOI: 10.1007/s11089-019-00892-3.
About the Author
Read Next
re
very interesting sketch.
imo, i am a human, and so is Kanye, Spears, some doctor, professor, the author of this article... if they have a cancer, and i have it, wouldn't think that the cancer ate their personality so much so that their personality became my personality. i have never seen that type of preposterous presumptions and audacity in people when it comes to physical illness, really
and there is actually a religious, messianic schizophrenia - maybe reclassified in modern dmsi, but very much schizophrenia, not that anything is wrong with it or that people need to be locked
both religion and pure, non-mixed bipolar states sit on opposites, no relativism, absolutism in their genuine, not commercialized form
i thought this might be helpful - i often encountered this tarot card, "Seven of Cups (Temptation), when reversed: Daydreams and fantasies brought into realistic focus. The contemplation of many options leading to a conclusive choice. Inner clarity that dissipates illusions and false choices. Remaining connected to reality in the face of intoxication, delirium, or hallucination. Under rare and extreme circumstances, may indicate the failure to recognize a transcendental spiritual truth."
so who knows, really, who knows
Buddhism is atheistic. You
Buddhism is atheistic. You should find little conflict with practicing Buddhism and atheism.
May you find the peace you seek.
great article!
Buddhism is perfectly compaitble w/ atheism. Neuroscience practically proves the basics of buddism, while disproving every other religion. I am not a practicioner myself. Look into the phrase in buddhism: "If you meet the Buddha kill him" Alan Watts talked about it alot. Where he explains why people that believe in God don't have any faith.
Check out secular therapy project to see how atheism is persecuted in professional psychology.
Great book: Shamans Among us: Schizophrenia (BiPolar) and the evolutionary origins of shamanism. Bipolar isn't in the title but he correlates it throughout. He is a practicing clinician & head of psychiatry at one of the big schools in canada.
I have about 50 books on the subject i will post may Amazn list if it lets me.
Your academic degrees
Did your mania enable you to finish your degrees faster than most people?
No, but I wasn't manic at the
No, but I wasn't manic at the time. PhD was 4.5 years and JD was 3.
Looking forward to more articles on this topic
I've often wondered whether the hyper religiousness of some in my family might be a form of mental illness. We all suffer from some level of depression and anxiety and periodic mania. Several of us take antidepressants for it. I'm eager to understand how outrageous religious beliefs can take hold in otherwise reasonable people.
Questions
So assuming you have bipolar somewhat managed and assuming that you probably have been to intensive therapy, and assuming you have embedded the education you gained in human psychology, human mind, human knowledge and human philosophy....what is your thought and theory of bipolar?
I do not have bipolar but I have childhood trauma which I have sought for relief in my 40s because I wanted to become a therapist.
What I learned in therapy (and I lead a relatively healthy life with career, great marriage (where I learned how to deal with my own triggers faster than in therapy), good physical health - counting my blessing still) is that there are few things:
If you know human development and the theory of mind and suffer from trauma related dissociation, it is fairly easy to notice when oscillation from borderline to narcissistic states (not narcissistic personality) levels in transference.
If one allows deep regression in the safety of therapy and fairly has safe life outside; one may see how bipolar mind may work as one swings from integration to disintegration quite rapidly.
The mind is primed to believe - especially to believe we will be rescued by someone when we are born and that believe mechanism is the prototype of religion, relationships, and attachment.
As we move up in the integration phase, we let go of attachment but flexibly not rigidly and we let go of the self but again flexibly not rigidly so we are in a space of openness to be selfish or pro-social consciously and justly not exploited or unconsciously.
I find the bi-polarizing is how rapid and fast and frequent one may jump from borderline to integration or from narcissistic state to integration or to borderline and the reason some people may go to panic or psychosis is either they cannot hold the sudden change in the mind or they have structural basis organically or they do not feel safe in the environment.
But bi-polarizing is actually the path of healing if one takes stock, slows down the frequency of oscillating between extremes and has a safe environment that allows this oscillation, albeit, when the oscillation is short duration like during therapy or retreat not everyday thing.
The religion and bipolar connection is becoming extreme conscious of the mechanism in us to believe - to have faith even at our own existence! and in order to make a meaning we call it god, universe, or some other - but this is so we can use language to say what is it we are talking about.
I think one reason people resist medication is because maybe they truly bi-polarized to integration and can hold, contain, or manage their borderline states or manic states cause they are no longer afraid of their own mind. Where others are afraid of their own mind and try unsuccessfully prevent another panic - which becomes the snake eating its own tail.
The beauty of bi-polar is losing your mind and experiencing the experience and being able to come back and tell it. But a lot of people the culture does not allow that and tells them you lose your mind, that is it, you are disordered not taking into consideration their own thinking and selfhood. Listening to a person with bi-polar can teach us about resilience which basically means experiencing adversity and still holding ground. Well losing sanity and still holding enough to come back to body/mind is the ultimate resilience until we shame them or ostracize them. I decided it to see it differently.
Kanye West's problem from my point of view since I do not know the man is that he is believing his own thoughts to be real so he is delusional not on the spectrum of integration. He may have experienced integration but it was fleeting phase and he did not hold on to it but just like a kid in a candy store - got excited his new found power ---and that could be underlying disorder...like bi-polarizing from narcissistic, if you do not start to humble, you just go crazy with it. He was not humbled, he got greedy. The speed of bi-polar was too fast, and his frequency is probably too often that he does not have time to actually study and re-frame the experience. I am basing this that his life or his relationships are not improving and his need for power is becoming insatiable! he bi-polarized the death drive not the light drive. IMHO, he probably bi-polarized from borderline to narcissistic not to integration! Where you probably (from what you wrote here) bi-polarizing from narcissistic to integration and trying to hold that integration a bit longer.
So my question is this: after all you learned about human psychology, what is your take or subjective experience of bipolar and its meaning, genesis and its treatment?
Disclaimer: I am not scientist, or mental health expert. I am just a person fond of finding meaning and knowledge.
Thank you for your comment. I
Thank you for your comment. I plan to write additional blog entries in which I will explore other subjective experiences as someone with bipolar disorder and discuss them in relation to research into causes and treatments for bipolar. I hope you will come back as I post additional blog entries. Thanks again!
Post Comment